The Writers Jack and Mary Branson

The Writers

Jack
Jack Branson
analytical

When Jack was 8 years old and walking to and from school in Fort Worth, Texas, he met Gene, a motorcycle police officer who directed school traffic at the corner of Shaw and Hemphill. Jack told Gene that he wanted to be a police officer someday, and Gene gave him a list of license numbers of stolen cars. Each day after that, Jack sat on his bicycle and checked the license plates of passing cars, determined to catch a car thief

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All Jack ever wanted to do was to be a police officer, and eventually he worked at every level of law enforcement—local, county, state, and federal. In 2003, he retired after a 20-year career as a Special Agent, U.S. Department of the Treasury, where his assignments included Secret Service duties with foreign dignitaries, the U.S. Presidential jump team, and 15 years on the U.S. Attorney’s Office public corruption task force. He now heads a private investigation agency, Branson & Associates, and volunteers as a local police officer.

During Jack’s final year as a federal agent, his aunt was brutally murdered. Though he’d guarded presidents and kings, he’d never worked a murder case. So for the next four and a half years he entered this new territory. And from this experience, he became a true crime writer.

Jack’s favorite quote:

“The tallest trees catch the most wind.”—African wisdom

Mary

Mary Kinney Branson
creative

Mary entered true crime writing through an entirely different door. She always wanted to be a writer, and she wrote 17 books before working with Jack on their first true crime book. Mary’s first book was published when she was 25 and, over the years, she’s written books for preschoolers, children, youth, and adults. Topics vary from teaching to baby-sitting to devotions. After retiring from her position as marketing director for a national agency, Mary began AptWord, Inc., a literary agency that helps writers prepare their manuscripts for publication.

When Jack’s aunt was murdered, Mary coped as writers do. She journaled her thoughts, observations, and insights from the first day. She used her notes to write a first person account of the murder, but the book became a partnership between Jack and Mary as Jack completed all the research and edited the book for technical accuracies.

And Jack and Mary discovered that, though the topic was painful, they enjoyed writing together and they felt that sharing the victim’s story was the ultimate closure.

Mary’s favorite quote:

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” Henry David Thoreau

Jakc And Mary
Jack and Mary
a blend of left brain/right brain just right for true crime

Jack and Mary were high school sweethearts and soon proved that opposites create the strongest attraction. Introvert and extrovert. Analytical and creative. Emotional and stoic. But on the basics—faith, values, goals, and family—Jack and Mary were singly focused. They’ve been best friends and husband-wife for 40 years. They have a fantastic daughter, an incredible son, two phenomenal grandsons, and an adorable granddaughter. Their favorite pastimes are family and travel.

Throughout the years, Jack and Mary enjoyed reading the same true crime books, then comparing insights and opinions. After writing Murder in Mayberry, the book about the murder in their family, they realized that they were perfectly shaped to write true crime—Jack’s law enforcement background, Mary’s writing experience, their common interest in true crime. It wasn’t long before doors opened to writing more true crime.

Jack and Mary have a strong respect for human life, and after experiencing violent crime in their own lives, they write with respect for victims and their families.

Jack and Mary’s favorite quote:

“Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.” —Holocaust Museum, Washington, D.C.

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